Package



Patented Sept. 23, 1941 TEN-r OFFICE PACKAGE William H. Keogler,Jamaica,,N. Y., assignor to I Albert Ehlers, Inc.,' Brooklyn, Y., acorporation of New York Application January 11,1941 Serial No. 374,067,Claims. (01. 206-65) This invention relates to packaging and moreparticularly to the packaging of small articles which are easilyentangled one with the other. A practical application of this inventionis in the packaging of tea balls. Tea balls are normally packed,especially for commercial purposes, in cartons containing a large numberof individual units, as many as one hundred in each package. As is wellknown, tea balls usually consist of a small sack filled with tea andtied with string, the string being of sufiicient length to allow the teaball to be inserted into a cup and withdrawn. For convenience and toprevent the string from falling into the cup, the string is normallysupplied with a tag or hand-hold of some kind. In commercial productionit is customary for the manufacturer of the bags to place his trade-markupon the tags.

As previously stated, one hundred or more tea balls may be packed in asingle carton, and due to the fact that the tag and string are normallyattached to the tea bag it has been a common complaint that theindividual tea bags, the strings and the tags become entangled so thatwhen one tea bag is withdrawn from the carton several other bags may beaccidentally extracted and in many cases lost or destroyed due to thestrings becoming loose from the bags.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a simple and economicalmethod of packing the tea balls or other articles to avoid thedifliculties heretofore mentioned.

A further purpose is to provide a package in which each individual unitwill be separated from the others by its tag, as well as by sidepartitions, and in which danger of the entanglement of the individualbags, strings and tags will be eliminated to a great degree.

A further object of the invention is to provide a package which will beneat and attractive when displayed on or behind a counter, and in whichthe tags showing the trade mark of the packer will be visible as thecarton is used.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent asthe description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawing- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a cartonhalf filled, displaying my package and the method of packing the teabags;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view showing a corner of said carton;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view of an individual tea bag, string and tag.

I provide a conventional carton In made of a single blank and havingflaps folded upon themselves to form side walls II and i2, a front l3,and a cover M. A blank l5 f the same size as the bottom of the carton iscut and bent upon itself to provide elongated dividing extensions [6which may extend laterally or from front to rear. These dividingextensions or divisional members I6 act as partitions between the rowsof tea bags I! and with the side walls- H and I2 constitute a series oflongitudinal grooves or containing members l8. As shown in Fig. 5, thecustomary tea bag I1 is closed by a string I 9 and is provided with atag 20.

In packing the container It), the individual bags are placed in thegrooves I8 and the tags are used to form a partition between each bagand the next, with the bights of the strings preferably thrown in onedirection. In packing, the bags will be started at one back corner ofthe container and the bights of the strings thrown toward the nearestside Wall so that when the container is completely packed the bightswill all extend in one direction and each bag will be separated from itsneighbor by the partitions l6 and by the tags 20. There will be,therefore. very little possibility of the strings or tags becomingentangled.

In using the tea bags it will be most convenient to remove them by thebight of the string and because of their position in the carton withrelation to each other each bag and its tag may be removed withoutdanger of entanglement.

While the blank I5 is shown as consisting of a single piece out alongthe edges.25 and 26 and bent upon itself at 27 to form an uprightpartition, it will be appreciated that any type of dividing member maybe used which will separate the bags in one direction. The essentialfeature of my invention resides in a construction whereby the tags andthe strings attaching the tags to the bags may not only be placed in aposition Where danger of their entanglement is slight but in a positionwhere they actually aid in separating one bag from the other. I

I claim:

1. A package comprising a receptacle of rectangular form provided with abase having longitudinal partitions, and a plurality of containersarranged in rows between said partitions, each of said containers havingattached thereto one end of a suspending string and to the other end ofsaid string a tag, said tags being interposed between said containers.

2. A package comprising a receptacle of rectangular form provided with abase having longitudinal partitions, and a plurality of containersarranged in rows between said partitions, each of said containers havingattached thereto one ,end .of a suspending string and to the other endof said string a tag, said tags being interposed between said containerstransversely of said longitudinal partitions.

3. The combination of a container for tea" bags comprising a rectangularbox, and a blank 4. The combination of a container for tea bagscomprising a rectangular box, and a blank in the bottom of said boxhaving portions thereof cut and bent upon said blank to form longitudinal dividing members, with tea bags having strings and tags on saidstrings, said tea bags being arranged between said longitudinalpartitions with said tags positioned between said bags transversely ofsaid dividing members, and each of said tea bags having the bight ofsaid string positioned in the same direction.

5. The combination with packages having tags (attached thereto byflexible means, of a container, said container including a base,sections of said base being cut and bent upwardly to f0rm ie10n g-atedpartitions and said packages being placed between said partitions andseparated from one another by means of said tags.

WILLIAM H. KEOGLER.

